Davis Cup 2011: World Group, Part 1
Tennis is not particularly known for being a team sport. In the modern game, the best players are singles’ specialists and the more partnership-oriented version of tennis, doubles, is looked onto as a lower form of the game. There is still room for team competitions in the sport though, as proved by the prestige associated with the Davis Cup.
The Davis Cup is the largest team event in sport; in many countries it is even more popular than the Grand Slams. Almost all the tennis greats of the past have been active in the competition, ranging from John McEnroe’s long and excellent representation of the United States to Novak Djokovic’s heroics in helping Serbia land the title last year.
The Cup has a very distinct format. The 16 best teams in the world take part in a knock-out tournament for the actual trophy. The rest of the teams participate in regional events, which help decide the participants of the next year’s world group. 8 of the 16 teams in the world group progress to the quarterfinals of the tournament. They are guaranteed a place in the coming year’s knock-out tournament. The remaining 8 take part in a playoff which pits them against the 8 winners of the regional competitions. The regional competitions themselves are tiered. Europe/Africa, The Americas and Asia each make a regional zone, and are divided into groups ranging from I to IV, with I being the highest and IV being the lowest. Relegation and promotion takes place on each level, with an elimination tournament played in the higher two groups and a round-robin event held for groups III and IV.
Each contest between two countries is known as a rubber. A rubber consists of 5 matches, 4 singles and 1 doubles. Each team is allowed 4 players; 2 allotted singles specialists and 2 reserve players who often contest the doubles match. Each singles match is a best-of-5 sets encounter and tie-breaks are allowed for all sets save the last.
The idea for the Davis Cup was conceived by four Harvard University students in 1899, when they wanted to challenge players from the United Kingdom to a contest. What initially began as a challenge cup has evolved immensely over the years, but relatively few countries have seen consistent success in the tournament. Topping the list of victors are the United States of America, who have a record 32 trophies to their name. Following them are the other former British Colony, Australia, with 28. The United Kingdom itself is far behind its former colonies, with 9 victories over the years. Besides them, France and more recently, Spain, have been the only consistent winners, with 7 and 4 trophies respectively.
Last year’s tournament saw a dramatic final between France and Serbia, where the latter emerged as victor for the first time in the country’s history. Novak Djokovic, the current World No.3, was instrumental in helping his nation win the title. With Serbia trailing 2-0 in their final rubber, Djokovic won all his singles matches to carry his team across the line.
This year’s competition features 16 of the world’s finest tennis-playing nations. Along with Serbia and France, Spain, the Czech Republic, Argentina, United States, Russia and Croatia make up the seeds. Their opponents in the first round are India, Austria, Belgium, Kazakhstan, Romania, Chile, Sweden and Germany respectively.
All the matches promise to be exciting events, with renowned names such as Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick, Andy Murray, Robin Soderling, Jurgen Melzer and Juan Martin Del Potro all representing their countries in the World Group.
Such exciting tennis warrants predictions, and the previews that make up the rest of this series shall attempt to plot out the course this year’s Davis Cup takes.
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